An illustration of the plight of the rural Chinese bumpkin/semi-migrant is captured in this essay that is apparently circulating the Chinese blogosphere (h/t to China Hush; Chinese version here). It is from someone who has "made it" into the elite world to which she/he aspired. The account is highly effective, and resembles the personalized stories that proliferate the "we are the 99 percent" website -- it is titled "I fought for 18 years to have a cup of coffee with you":
Here's a question I pose for my white collar friends: what if I never
graduated from middle school, and had become a migrant worker? Would
you sit down for a cup of coffee with me at Starbucks? The answer,
unequivocally, is that you wouldn't. That is simply not a
possibility. If we compared our experiences growing up, you will find
that for the things that you take for granted, I have sacrificed and
exerted huge amounts of efforts to acquire.
From the moment I was born, our life's path swerved away from
each other. I was given a rural resident card while you got a city one.
If I grew up keeping my rural residence, I wouldn't be able to work in
the city today. I would also be denied social security, and proper
medical care. You might ask: "Why must you come to the city? Isn't the
country good enough? The air is fresh, and it's never crowded." But the
country has no proper healthcare system. During the SARs scare our
country seemed to "suddenly" realize that its rural healthcare was
completely defunct. Plus, we have a very small consumer market. Because
farmers make very little money and can't afford much, companies refuse
to distribute products in our areas. During the New Year only a tiny
percent of families can afford the color T.V to watch the New Year's
broadcast. The majority of families are still fighting for their basic
survival. This is why I want to be in the city. For the object you were
simply born with, this city resident card, I have had to fight and
struggle.
College was the only way out of rural China. I needed to work very
hard to graduate from elementary school, to be accepted into a middle
and high school. I was a lone traveler on a narrow and precarious bridge
above a deep valley, and while I was on it, I watched my friends and
classmates fall one by one. Meanwhile, the road ahead of me became
increasingly narrow. Should I have been happy or worried? Because of
fierce competition, I was terrified that any misstep might drag me off
course. Apart from studying, I was never able to have a hobby or partake
in extra-curriculars, not that the school ever offered any
opportunities. On the first day in high school, our principal told us
that we had only one goal during those three years- Gao Kao.(college
entrance exam) So, during that time, I woke up at 5:30 every morning,
and went to bed at 11:00 PM. During holidays, I was memorizing test
questions.
For you, there is no question that you'll graduate elementary school
and go onward to middle and high school. The competition isn't that
fierce, and your homework load isn't that heavy. You can take the time
to develop a hobby, to read the books you want, to play basketball, to
take excursions to the countryside to enjoy its blue skies. If you don't
want to work so hard for Gao Kao, and your grades aren't atrocious, you
can opt for a school who's willing to recruit you without test scores.
And even if your scores are indeed atrocious, a third tier university
will still accept you. Meanwhile, I have to earn exceptionally high
marks to get into that same third tier university, since universities
demand more from out-of-state students.
We take the same test. The minimum score requirements for you and me
are not the same. But once we're accepted, our tuition fees are again
the same. Every person pays 6000RMB per year - that's for tuition only,
which comes out as 24,000 RMB for all four years. Housing (1500RMB), and
books (1000RMB) add up to around 4000RMB - and I'm only talking about
eating cafeteria food the entire time. Four years of college comes down
to 50,000 RMB. In 2003, a university in Shanghai announced that it was
raising its annual tuition to 10,000 RMB due to the "campus renovation"
That means 40,000 RMB for four years of tuition alone. Count in living
and text book costs and a university education adds up to 66,000 RMB.
For families who live in the city, 66,000 RMB isn't much. For a rural
family, 66,000 RMB is a life time's worth of savings. I come from a
coastal province that has been getting steady foreign investment. We
were better off compared to some inner provinces, but still, after a
year of hard labor, we were hard pressed to save much. A family of four
who consume only the very basics can save 3000 RMB each year. That means
to send one child to a four year college at 66,000 RMB a family needs
to save for 22 years. That's assuming that no one gets sick. It also
means that no matter how talented the second child is the family must
still deprive him or her from attending college since they can only
afford to send one.
I was lucky compared to others. By throwing together all the funds we
had, and by taking out student loans, I was finally able to pay my
first year of tuition. Meanwhile, I watched those students who'd been
accepted and the heartbreak their families experienced for being unable
to send them to school. I felt a pervasive sense of wrongness. Our
education industry nowadays don't only recruit the best students, they
recruit the students with the richest parents.
But, finally I found myself on a University campus! I worked hard and
earned a scholarship. During the holidays, I worked to save spending
money. I couldn't bear asking my parents for money. Every cent they made
was an exchange of their sweat. That money was sweat money, blood
money.
Upon coming to Shanghai, I realized that compared to my classmates, I
was green beyond belief. I couldn't draw, couldn't play an instrument,
didn't know who the hottest pop stars were, had never read a best
selling novel, didn't know what an MP3 was, didn't even know what a
Walkman was. To understand what our management professor was lecturing
about during his class on "Warehouse style supermarkets" like Wal-Mart
and Sam's Club, I spent a day at "McDonalds" watching with astonishment.
I'd never seen so much stuff.
I'd never touched a computer, so I spent half a year sitting in a
computer lab learning the skills you'd learned in high school. My
English is the English spoken by a deaf or a mute person. Neither
westerners nor Chinese people can understand what I'm saying. But that
wasn't my fault. There were never any foreign teachers in my village.
When teachers don't even know the language, how can they possibly teach
students to speak? With a poor foundation, I spent an entire year
correcting my pronunciation. I admired city students for how talented
they were, how much they knew. I only knew how to study. I'd only known
studying, test taking, graduating, because only by getting into college
could I study amongst you and become a part of you. Everything had to be
geared and pointed towards this goal.
I could bear the mockery of my classmates, could go weeks without
eating any meat, could spend my entire weekend cooped up in a library,
could come back from studying on the weekend to see boys and girls
dancing, could go running at the deep of the night out of loneliness and
boredom. I dreamt that one day I would graduate, and find a job in the
city. I wanted to work with the city-dwellers of my generation, and like
them, to become a city resident. I wanted my parents to be proud
because they had a son working in Shanghai!
Finally, I graduated. Finding a job in Shanghai was hard, but going
back to the village was not an option. The average salary for our class
was 2000RMB per month. Perhaps you think that 2000RMB is an adequate
salary, but I still needed to pay for rent, to pay for utilities, to pay
back my student loans, and to send money home to put my brother and
sister through school. What was left, I used for food. After all of
this, I still couldn't join you for a coffee at Starbucks!
Since that time I've earned a master's degree, and currently live in
Shanghai where my annual salary is 80,000 RMB. I fought for eighteen
years, and can finally sit down with you for a cup of coffee. I'm now a
resident in this big, international city, and I'm no different from the
white collar workers here. However, I can never forget the struggles my
family and I went through. I can never forget my classmates who will
never see their dreams come true. For this reason, I've written this in
the first person. What I've written is nothing special. It's the typical
tale of those who come from rural China. Every time I see a student
who's been dealt same hand I got, I feel a heavy sense of
responsibility.
I didn't write this to complain. The terrifying thing isn't that
justice is relative. The terrifying thing is to witness injustice and to
act as if one sees nothing. While I was getting my masters, I once had a
conversation with a girl who at the time had 3 years of work experience
under her belt. She is now the HR director of a joint stock company. We
were talking about a marketing strategy for Weida's paper industry. Her
idea was to carve out a new market by advertising Weida's high quality
dinner napkins to China's nine hundred million farmers. Surprised by her
cocksureness, I asked her if she knew how farmers wipe their mouths
after each meal. She returned my question with a misgiving look. I
raised my hand and wiped my mouth on my sleeve. She looked at my
graceless action with contempt.
During a macro-economics class, a classmate attacked blue collar
workers who'd been laid off, and unemployed high school dropouts: "80%
of them are where they are because they don't work hard. They chose not
to specialize in something when they were young, so they can't get jobs
now! Those kids are perfectly capable of studying and working. I've
heard that a lot of students use their holidays to make thousands to pay
their tuition." You can't find a person who knows less about the
struggles of rural China than this classmate of mine.
I was born during the 70s. People my age are starting to become
leaders and our actions affect the social and economic development. I
wrote this essay for the young people who grew up in well-heeled
communities, and for those who grew up struggling but have since
forgotten. Pay attention to the classes beneath you. For this world to
be fairer, we need to do what we can for others, to be aware that social
responsibility warrants a permanent place in our thoughts and actions.
This is a reality that Chinese from all walks of life recognize and live with. The government has taken due notice as well. And so it comes as no surprise that the major theme in their economic plan de-emphasizes economic growth (growing the pie) and trumpets income (redistributing the existing pie). However, the jury is still out on just how extensively they will be able to address the clear and present dangers of inequality.